Shadow and Maria: The Promise
by Blue Phoenix 12
Summary: This is my version of the story of Shadow the Hedgehog and Maria Robotnik. This story is extremely intense, and is not recommended for readers who are especially sensitive to tragedy or tend to cry over the story of Shadow and Maria.


Shadow the Hedgehog stood in front of the great window of the improvised observation deck, his arms crossed in front of his chest as he gazed towards the outside. Next to him, a young girl with blonde hair and blue eyes was kneeling on the cold, steel floor, staring out the same window. The two friends were observing the same sight: the great, blue planet looming in the distance below the space station they were currently occupying.

The black hedgehog stared quietly out the window for a minute, then turned to the girl by his side. He saw there was a sweet smile on her lips; a smile of hope.

"Maria", said Shadow to his friend, "how are you feeling today?"

"Very well, thank you Shadow!" she replied happily, without taking her eyes off the planet outside. "I think I really am getting better!"

"That's good", said the hedgehog, turning back to face the window. Although he didn't change his expression from its serious sympathetic look, he was beaming brightly on the inside.

Maria had been undergoing intense treatment for a while now, and the fact that she was feeling well was a very good sign. It meant that she was fighting her illness, and she was determined to reach her goal.

"I hope I can become completely healthy very soon, Shadow", said Maria, looking to her left at her hedgehog friend. "I'd like to visit that planet very much!"

Shadow nodded curtly and smiled subtly to acknowledge Maria's statement, but didn't say a word. She had told him this many times before, and every time she brought up the subject, the hedgehog felt his insides writhing with contradicting emotions. On the one hand, he was happy that his friend was so hopeful and that she was bravely enduring her treatment; but on the other, he was sad to see her suffer, and he wished more than anything that he could simply realize her wish and take her to visit the blue planet far below.

"You'll come with me to the planet, won't you, Shadow?" Maria asked the black hedgehog, another light gleam of hope brightening her features. "I want you to come with me, so you can make lots of friends in the new world!"

Shadow turned and looked his friend directly in her blue eyes for a moment, then smiled brightly at her.

"Of course I will, Maria", he said reassuringly. "I could never leave you."

The young girl grinned broadly at the hedgehog's words, then once again turned her attention to the sight outside the window. Another minute of silence passed, a minute in which Shadow pondered a question that had been bothering him for ages. He had never found the right moment to ask it before, but now that his friend was feeling well, he knew this was probably the best time to do so.

"Maria..." Shadow said slowly, still staring at the young girl by his side. "Why was I created?"

Maria suddenly turned to face her friend, a confused look on her face. Her puzzlement lingered for a few seconds before fading into concern. She smiled kindly at the hedgehog, reached out to him, and took his hand in hers.

"You were created for a very special purpose, Shadow."

"But what is that purpose?" asked Shadow. "What did your grandfather create me for?"

Maria stared quietly at her friend for another moment, squeezing his hand gently. She had a distant look in her eyes, as though she were trying to decide whether or not she should tell him yet. Shadow waited patiently for the young girl to answer his question. After a minute, she opened her mouth slowly, about to speak.

But whatever it was she was going to say, the words would never leave her lips. At that exact moment, an enormous bang echoed throughout the entire space station, startling the two friends in the observation deck. Maria released Shadow's hand abruptly, and the two of them turned sharply towards the source of the noise, facing the darkness in the hallway past the open door.

Maria stood up slowly, watched closely by Shadow. The two then made their way carefully into the hall and towards the noises still echoing from beyond the darkness. As they crept down the corridor, the sounds grew louder and more comprehendible. The girl and the hedgehog stopped by one of the doors in the hallway, and could make out voices shouting in the next room; men yelling orders to be quiet and freeze. The voices were deep and sharp, and didn't sound friendly at all.

Shadow took a single step towards the main laboratory at the end of the hall, but was stopped by Maria, who had placed her hand heavily on his shoulder.

"Stay here", she whispered urgently. "Don't let anyone see you."

She then walked carefully to the lab down the hall alone, leaving the hedgehog standing in the corridor behind her. Shadow did not like the idea of letting Maria venture forth on her own, especially in her condition, but he knew she meant well and would never have let him accompany her. So he stayed by the door and listened.

The voices of the shouting men had ceased, and had been replaced by new yet equally frightening sounds. The shattering of glass could be heard, and an occasional bang would echo through the hallway, straining their noise in Shadow's ears. The hedgehog waited in the place Maria had left him for what seemed like an eternity. All the while, he listened for any sound that might indicate his friend was in trouble, and was in desperate need of his help.

After a couple of minutes, such a sound reached Shadow's ears. He heard a male voice shout for someone to stop, pause for a few seconds, then repeat the order several times. A second later, Maria appeared again around the corner, running frantically down the hallway in the opposite direction from the source of the noise.

"Maria!" Shadow exclaimed as his friend reached him. "What's going on?"

But the girl didn't answer. Instead, she grabbed the hedgehog by the hand without slowing down her pace, and pulled him behind her as she continued to run down the corridor. As Shadow tried to keep up with her, he heard a man's voice yelling behind them.

"Stop! Young lady, stop!"

But Maria would not stop. She led Shadow across the observation deck and through another hallway, until finally they reached a large room at the end of the space station. The girl quickly punched in a five-digit code in the keypad by the electronic double doors, and they opened with a pneumatic hiss. She rushed through the open doorway, dragging the hedgehog behind her, and the doors closed behind the friends once again, shutting out the voice of the shouting man who was chasing them.

"Maria, what's happening?" asked Shadow, frightened. "Who is that man? Why is he chasing us?"

The room Shadow and Maria had entered was full of large glass-and-steel capsules. Once the doors were closed, the young girl wasted no time in catching her breath or answering her friend's questions; she immediately picked up the hedgehog and rushed him over to one of the capsules, thrusting him through its small compartment door. When he was inside, Maria shut the hatch, sealing it tight. She then ran over to the control board in the center of the room. Shadow yelled after her:

"Maria, no! What are you doing?!"

Maria stopped in front of the control panel, then, for the first time since she had left Shadow alone in the corridor, she turned and looked him directly in his red eyes. The hedgehog could see that tears were forming in the girl's own blue ones, and that scared him even more than the shouting man had only minutes before.

"Shadow", Maria whispered, "promise me something. Promise me that you'll always do what you can to help the people. Promise me you'll protect everyone who needs you in the planet below."

The planet below? Help the people? Shadow stared wide-eyed at his friend standing in the middle of the room, pressing his hands against the glass of the capsule he was in.

"What are you talking about, Maria?"

A loud bang echoed in the corridor outside the closed doorway. The sound of something heavy crashing against the metal doors rang throughout the room. Shadow began frantically trying to escape the capsule, pounding his fists against the glass and kicking the hatch as hard as he could, but in vain; the capsule was sealed tight, and the hatch would not give way. Maria raised her voice against the noises outside the doorway and continued:

"I beg you, Shadow! Do it for me, please! Promise me you'll always look after those people in the world below."

"But why?"

More crashing noises filled the hallway and the room. The man outside the doorway was clearly trying to force his way in. Maria didn't look back at the metal doors; she kept her eyes fixed on the hedgehog.

"Because..." she said, speaking softly despite the loud noises echoing through the room, "that's why you were created. Your purpose is to protect the people, to watch over them always... like a shadow."

Shadow stared silently at the young girl, stunned. New sounds were suddenly heard outside the double doors: gunshots being fired at something metallic, followed by a small explosion. Maria suddenly changed tones, shouting urgently and desperately:

"Promise me, Shadow!"

"I promise!" Shadow yelled back, startled and more afraid than ever. Maria nodded curtly in gratitude, then turned back to the control panel in the center of the room, reaching for the large lever that, once pulled, would launch the capsule containing the hedgehog into space and towards the blue planet below.

When she placed her hands on the metal rod, however, the doors behind her suddenly opened, and a tall man in a navy blue uniform appeared in the doorway: a G.U.N. agent. He pointed a large gun directly at her back, and shouted an order at her.

"FREEZE!"

Maria stopped abruptly, her fingers poised around the lever of the panel. The man shouted another order at her.

"Raise your hands where I can see them!"

The young girl kept her hands where they were, slowly closing her fingers tighter around the lever. Shadow glanced at the G.U.N. agent in the doorway, then turned back to his friend, realizing with a rush of shock and horror what was going to happen next.

"Maria", the hedgehog said urgently to his friend, whispering so the man wouldn't hear or see him, "please don't do this! Let go of the lever; he'll kill you if you don't. I'll be fine, really! Please let go of the lever!"

Tears formed in the corners of Shadow's eyes as he stared desperately through the glass at his only friend in the world. Never before had he felt so helpless. Maria was standing in front of the control board with her head facing down and turned slightly to the side, towards the capsule. The G.U.N. agent repeated his order for her to raise her hands, but still she would not obey.

Instead, Maria moved only her eyes to look at her hedgehog friend. She had heard him, he knew she had, but the look in the girl's eyes told Shadow that she had other intentions. A tear rolled down the young girl's cheek, unseen by the man with the gun but clearly visible to Shadow. Maria smiled weakly and mouthed her last words to her friend, and though she didn't make a sound, Shadow could clearly make them out:

"Goodbye, Shadow the Hedgehog."

The hedgehog's eyes widened in fear and shock. Everything suddenly seemed to be happening in slow motion. He saw Maria tightening her grip on the lever, he saw her close her eyes, and he saw her move her hands abruptly downwards. A great cry suddenly escaped Shadow's lips:

"MARIA!"

But it was too late; the lever had already been pulled completely down, and Maria stumbled backwards. The capsule containing the black hedgehog suddenly lurched and shot downwards, out of the space station. Shadow managed to take one last look at his dear friend, a look of calm satisfaction and acceptance on her sweet face. Then, as soon as the rising floor had obstructed his view of the room, he heard a distinct bang, followed by another noise which sounded horribly like something heavy collapsing to the ground. The next sight that met Shadow's eyes was the great blue sky all around him, sparkling with stars.

But the stars were only blurs to the black hedgehog. He stared blankly ahead, too stunned to move or speak. The tears that had been forming in his eyes a minute ago were falling fast now, blurring his vision until he could no longer make out anything more than faded colors and shapes before him.

Shadow struggled to grasp the reality of what had just happened, but in vain; it didn't make any sense to him at all. Less than an hour ago, Maria had been laughing and talking to him about her dreams, and now she was gone... gone, forever...

A minute after the capsule had been launched, a strange white gas began to stream out from its ceiling and slowly fill the compartment. This gas, Shadow knew, was intended to induce a sort of hypersleep on the individual inside the capsule, so they would easily withstand the entry into the atmosphere of the planet below. Before the hedgehog allowed the gas to rob him of his consciousness, though, he looked down at the great blue planet for which he was headed, watching it grow in his line of vision. He could still hear his late friend's words ringing in his ears.

"I beg you, Shadow! Do it for me, please! Promise me, Shadow!"

"I promise, Maria", Shadow whispered, one last tear escaping his eyes. He then stood back and took a deep breath, inhaling the white gas and allowing it to lure him into a state of hypersleep.

The last thing the black hedgehog remembered before falling into unconsciousness was the image of Maria's sweet face smiling at him, her blonde hair flowing gently to her shoulders and her blue eyes gleaming brightly. Shadow clung desperately to that image and to the last words Maria had said to him, until finally he gave in to the unconsciousness taking him over, and darkness filled his world.


End file.
